Billy Porter says he is ‘back on the market’ after filing for divorce

Divorce decision was ‘amicable and mutual’

Emmy-winner Billy Porter has said he is “back on the market” after recently filing for divorce from his husband Adam Smith.

The decision to end their six-year marriage was reportedly “amicable and mutual”. In a statement to People, Porter’s representation said: “They continue to love and support each other as they embark on this next chapter."

Of his relationship with Smith, the Pose star told the Evening Standard: “Relationships are hard. I will always love him. We made it as far as we could. But we learn, we grow and we live. And I’m looking forward to the next ... adventure.”

Porter went on to announce that he was “back on the market” and joked that while he was working in London, he had his eyes on an English husband. The actor also somberly noted that his work trip to London was “bittersweet” because it was where he and his estranged husband had gotten engaged.

The couple first met at a dinner party in 2009, but after only a year of dating, they broke up. Five years later, Porter rekindled his relationship with the Native Ken owner. Back in December 2016, the actor proposed to Smith during a romantic dinner in London, and two weeks later, the couple had an impromptu wedding on 14 January 2017, symbolically before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“We were discussing, and Billy had actually brought up to me that it’s important for us to get married while [Barack] Obama is still president and before 20 January,” Smith told People. “So we sat down and figured out when we could make it work before the 20th.”

At the time, the Tony winner believed that it was “important to show the world what our love looks like,” especially since both he and Smith grew up in households where being gay was considered an “abomination”. Growing up, Porter said that the idea of marriage for someone like him wasn’t even in the realm of possibility: “It was unspoken and very clear that the sanctity of marriage was not for us.”

Recently, Porter has opened up about his hardship in light of the ongoing SAG and WGA strike. Porter revealed that he has to sell his house amid projects being halted due to studios strategising to “starve out” strikers.

According to Deadline, film executives are intent on allowing “things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses”.

Around the country, thousands of actors and writers have been striking in solidarity for pay raises and residuals in the streaming era. The newly-single Porter didn’t hold back when he broke down the reality many actors in Hollywood face: “The life of an artist, until you make f**k-you money, which I haven’t made yet, is still check-to-check.”

Porter slammed Disney CEO Bob Iger’s dismissive comments “To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day?”

The Broadway star’s comments come after Iger dubbed strikers’ requests as “unrealistic”.